Hi, any observations and opinions on my latest blood results very well.
Graves disease, 13 years post RAI, I had a 18 months after pregnancy of feeling really great but currently feeling exhausted/zombied, puffy eyes, difficulty focusing vision and brain, bloating and constipation...etc
These results after a small increase in dose to 75mg 5 days and 100 1 day a week (although in the last week I did increase to 100 everyday because I had enough of feeling crap)
Test taken in the morning before medication or breakfast.
Thanks!
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Lilacsocks
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just testing TSH and Ft4 is completely inadequate as it doesn’t tell you how well you convert Ft4 to Ft3
Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and before eating or drinking anything other than water .
Last dose of Levothyroxine 24 hours prior to blood test. (taking delayed dose immediately after blood draw).
This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)
Is this how you did this test?
Likely Ft4 is too low for someone on just levothyroxine after RAI as it’s only 50% through range
Helpful calculator for working out percentage through range
Yep that's how I took the test. I asked for T3 but unfortunately the lab refused it. I am definitely considering the private test.
Ferritin was done in Feb and was 17ug/l (5-85) so I will start supplementing, as with B 12, which I was taking but a bit inconsistently.
I am not GF, should I be? Even if my thyroid has been RAI'd, I kind of thought there was no point?
I've tried GF in the past and it always made my digestive issues worse as a veggie it meant an increase in fibre which I struggle with. I now realise I struggle with lots of fibre due to undertreatment slowing down my digestive system.
The present review of the literature regarding B12 status among vegetarians shows that the rates of B12 depletion and deficiency are high. It is, therefore, recommended that health professionals alert vegetarians about the risk of developing subnormal B12 status. Vegetarians should also take preventive measures to ensure adequate intake of this vitamin, including the regular intake of B12 supplements to prevent deficiency. Considering the low absorption rate of B12 from supplements, a dose of at least 250 μg should be ingested for the best results.3
Yep. I'm taking a B12 but need to be more consistent with it. Which I will be from now. You don't think I should take iron? What other tests go into a full iron panel? Why are they important?
You don't think I should take iron? What other tests go into a full iron panel? Why are they important?
Iron is complicated and if Humanbean is around, she may be able to give more information than I can, she knows more about iron than I do.
An iron panel includes:
Serum iron: This test measures the amount of iron in your blood.
Serum ferritin: This is your body's iron store. This test measures how much iron is stored in your body. When your iron level is low, your body will pull iron out of “storage” to use.
Total iron-binding capacity (TIBC): This test tells how much transferrin (a protein) is free to carry iron through your blood. If your TIBC level is high, it means more transferrin is free because you have low iron.
Unsaturated iron-binding capacity (UIBC): This test measures how much transferrin isn’t attached to iron.
Transferrin saturation: This test measures the percentage of transferrin that is attached to iron.
The iron panel will tell you if you have iron deficiency. You only have a ferritin test showing with your results, not a complete iron panel.
There is also iron deficiency anaemia and a full blood count will show if that is present. Your full blood count does not show low haemoglobin or low haematocrit and your MCV and MCH are in range so no suggestion of iron deficiency anaemia there.
Low ferritin can be due to iron deficiency or iron deficiency anaemia.
You can have low ferritin without iron deficiency or iron deficiency anaemia.
If you have low ferritin without iron deficiency/iron deficiency anaemia then you wouldn't want to be supplementing iron because it will raise your iron levels and too much iron is as bad as too little iron.
When I had low ferritin I was a demi-veggie (I ate chicken and fish but no other meat). For my health's sake, I started to eat liver and it raised my ferritin level. I do not know how to raise ferritin levels in vegetarians, you would have to look up iron rich foods and see how they can fit into your diet.
Sodium 136 (133 - 146) 23% of the way through the range
Potassium 4.1 (3.5 - 5.3) 33% of the way through the range
This is a simple experiment you can try... Your sodium and potassium seem a smidgen low to me. Have you ever tried an adrenal cocktail before? It is commonly mentioned as an aid to adrenal health and commonly pops up on thyroid-related web sites. Although the recipes do vary they all include a source of sodium or salt, a source of potassium, and a source of vitamin C.
You can read about the adrenal cocktail at the following links and at lots of others online if you want to search for it :
I would suggest trying an adrenal cocktail as a short term experiment - say, for three - five days. If you get any adverse effects then give the idea a miss in future, but if it helps it won't do any harm that I've ever heard of.
Personally I keep my own serum B12 very high, and it has helped some of my health problems e.g. I was still getting teenage-type spots in my early 50s. Since pushing my B12 up well above range with methylcobalamin supplements I've had almost none, and the few I have had have been absolutely tiny.
I also found that my almost life-long eczema has 95% disappeared since keeping my B12 high.
Ferritin 17ug/l (5-85) 15% of the way through the range
Optimal for ferritin (iron stores) is approx 50% of the way through the range, which is 45 with the range you've given.
My first thought about the above result is that the reference range is very different to the ones I usually see for ferritin. I'm guessing the test isn't a UK one.
If you do live in the UK a good iron panel test is this one :
The body shifts iron from free iron in the blood stream (i.e. serum iron) into ferritin and back again all the time, depending on the body's requirements. So, if serum iron was getting higher than optimal it should be moved automatically into ferritin.
If the patient starts bleeding from injury or menstruation then the body ought to move iron from ferritin into serum iron as needed.
The kinds of problems that can occur with supplementing iron are described in the following thread :
If you want to take iron supplements plenty of testing is absolutely essential in the early days.
If you want to take some form of supplement that is prescribed by the NHS then just ask and I'll give you more info sometime tomorrow on what choices you have, where to get it, and how much to take.
Please note that any iron supplements must be stopped for a week before any form of iron testing.
Iron test results can be affected by supplements containing biotin and any biotin-containing supplement must be stopped for a week before any kind of testing too.
Wow. Thank you so much for all this information, I had NO IDEA iron was so complicated. The only experience I have with it is when o was pregnant and got told it take iron supplements because ferritin was towards the bottom of the ref. range. I definitely don't remember testing done like you described. I took a lactoferritin recommended by a nutritionist and it improved the number in a couple of months, I have naively assumed I could do the same again. Looks like I need to spend some time with this.
What was the name of the lactoferrin you were told to take? I was under the impression that it was quite expensive, whereas the supplements I take are the ones the NHS prescribes and they are cheap.
I have never tried lactoferrin, nor have I ever researched it, and it rarely gets a mention on the forum, so I'm interested.
I'll will look it up and get back to you. The reason it was recommended was because I didn't want to make constipation/digestive issue worse and I was told it was a more bioavailable form
Hello, I did post in a separate thread but since so many of you shared your wisdom here I hope it's okay to ask here too. I have now been taking the 100mg a day for a bit less than two weeks, the blood test is less than a week old (so I can't see it could have changed massively)
Since last night I have had a racing heart and feeling very anxious about it, I only got about two hours sleep because I can feel it pounding when I lie down. Too much thyroxine? I am surprised because my T4 was still only mid range. Anyone had a similar experience?
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